Mike's flexwing training blog
- Thread starter Mike Calvert
- Start date
MadamBreakneck - yeah, I think it will be practice, practice, practice - I *think* I'm slightly too slow in the roundout (because on my earlier attempts I was too fast..) then the transition into the hold off has to be 'exponential' rather than linear and again I'm not quite fast enough there. Too fast sometimes though and the nose starts to rise.. at the risk of over thinking, I think I *slighltly* pull back (a little!) but should probably just pause and let the decaying airspeed allow the nose to lower a little...
Then there's the 'check back' on landing, to stop a hop, and once or twice I've not got that timed right either.
It's frustrating, and my instructor isn't sure if it's just a case of be patient, keep at it, and it'll click, or is there something else he can do - He's been doing a demo of some form on each lesson, and we're on the 5th go now.
It's all about trying not to land, I understand that, but somehow I don't get the timing right of the roundout and hold-off.... so near and yet so far!
Still, I'm an optimist, and this is no hardship in so far as I'm enjoying it despite the landing frustrations, and still love the thrill of leaping up into the air on take off every time
Then there's the 'check back' on landing, to stop a hop, and once or twice I've not got that timed right either.
It's frustrating, and my instructor isn't sure if it's just a case of be patient, keep at it, and it'll click, or is there something else he can do - He's been doing a demo of some form on each lesson, and we're on the 5th go now.
It's all about trying not to land, I understand that, but somehow I don't get the timing right of the roundout and hold-off.... so near and yet so far!
Still, I'm an optimist, and this is no hardship in so far as I'm enjoying it despite the landing frustrations, and still love the thrill of leaping up into the air on take off every time
Maybe you've got somewhere else local you could fly to during a lesson to try it?
The irony is there's a HUGE runway right beside us, but we absolutely cannot use it! The little section that we have is, er, short. Adequate, but short. The circuit is also short - downside, there's not much time to get all the checks and radio calls in, upside, you can do a LOT of circuits in one lesson
The little section that we have is, er, short. Adequate, but short. The circuit is also short - downside, there's not much time to get all the checks and radio calls in, upside, you can do a LOT of circuits in one lesson 
The irony is there's a HUGE runway right beside us, but we absolutely cannot use it! The little section that we have is, er, short. Adequate, but short. The circuit is also short - downside, there's not much time to get all the checks and radio calls in, upside, you can do a LOT of circuits in one lesson
The little section that we have is, er, short. Adequate, but short. The circuit is also short - downside, there's not much time to get all the checks and radio calls in, upside, you can do a LOT of circuits in one lesson
If you were to use the big runway you'd find yourself deciding a touchdown point not far from the runway exit. When based at North Weald with its mile of tarmac if you touched just over the threshold you were faced with an embarrassing long taxi while everybody else waited for you.
When training though I had the good fortune to do so at Chatteris in the fens with almost no restraints on circuits, that must be rare these days. I was taught some circuits where I had an aproach of about two miles " you will fly with only very small variations in power and atitude and keep the picture constant" all the way to "you will not go outside the airfield boundary" With the last one you get a heck of a lot of circuits in an hour, mind you it was exhausting.
When training though I had the good fortune to do so at Chatteris in the fens with almost no restraints on circuits, that must be rare these days. I was taught some circuits where I had an aproach of about two miles " you will fly with only very small variations in power and atitude and keep the picture constant" all the way to "you will not go outside the airfield boundary" With the last one you get a heck of a lot of circuits in an hour, mind you it was exhausting.
